Etiquette - Educating the Fish

[Cosimo]

What does the forum think about educating the other players at the table? Stuff like talking about pot odds and outs, suggesting books, recommending sites, discussing strategy, etc.

There were a couple players doing this at one of my tables today, and it really pissed me off (I wound up turning off chat). It was a microlimit table, so it's not like I'm paying rent money with my winnings, but it's still a case of hurting your chances for making money in the future. I want the mass of players out there to be ignorant, and to stay that way. I make money because my opponents make mistakes.

At chess, go, Starcraft, or whatever, I want to help my fellow players. It's fun to put strategy guides together. But for poker...?

[krazyace5]

Most of these so called table coach pros at these limits give bad advice anyway.

[surfdoc]

This has been discussed ad naseum on these boards,in card player mag and in multple other sources. The answer is so obvious it is suprising we need another thread. Don't ever educate the fish. Why would you ever give up even the slightest edge? Even if the advice given by some table coaches is bad, just by bringing up pot odds, etc. you may raise the level awareness at the table and peolple may seek out the correct info. Not good.

As far as getting them to stop, that is another matter which I will leave to others to comment on.

[Freudian]

Then I suppose you are against the existance of these forums (since this forum is a great educator of fish) also and against those that give advice that help other posters here improve their game?

Personally I don't talk about it at the table but have no problems with others giving advice at the table. I do however react when the "education" comes in the form of berating the poor players. I want the poor players to enjoy being at my table so I have no problems defending them at the table.

[krazyace5]

these forums and table coaching could not be more different.

[Freudian]

Because you chosen this place to educate yourself and not the tables? I see no material difference between answering a poker question at the table and answering it here.

[Greg J]

[ QUOTE ]
(since this forum is a great educator of fish)

[/ QUOTE ]
How do you figure that?

[ncboiler]

[ QUOTE ]
Then I suppose you are against the existance of these forums (since this forum is a great educator of fish) also and against those that give advice that help other posters here improve their game?

Personally I don't talk about it at the table but have no problems with others giving advice at the table. I do however react when the "education" comes in the form of berating the poor players. I want the poor players to enjoy being at my table so I have no problems defending them at the table.

[/ QUOTE ]

I second that emotion. Actually when these fish loose their first deposit they are done...finished with pooker. If they can make a little bit of money then maybe they will be around long enough for me to have a slice of the their pie.

[Cosimo]

[ QUOTE ]
The answer is so obvious it is suprising we need another thread.

[/ QUOTE ]

I started a thread cuz the table coaches were talking about pot odds, SSH, and sending people here to the forums. I want whomever that coach was to see the opinions here.

If there was a sticky about this subject, a sticky FAQ, or a sticky favorites thread, then issues like this wouldn't spawn new threads every week. I felt a bit guilty about bringing this up again, but I think it's worth it. It gets brought up every week because we get new readers who haven't had the old discussions.

So consider this my vote for a sticky in every forum.

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Normally I just say "please don't tap on the glass", and sometimes ask "are you hoping to teach your opponents to take your money?". Usually that works. The reason why microlimits do matter is that players move up. Smart micro fish turn into mid- and high-stakes sharks.

[Wahoo91]

You seem way to concerned about this.